The Race is over. It was June 28, 2008 and I boarded a plane with 31 strangers. Then I blinked, and it was May 20, 2009 and a plane landed, I looked around, and there were no squad-family-members looking back at me, ready for a new country, a new experience. I was seemingly alone for the first time in nearly 11 months.
Perhaps it all seems like a dream.
But then again, who dreams of living out of a backpack for a year, “marrying” 31 people, tenting for months, sweating 24 hours a day, getting eaten alive by bugs, eating some really funky and gross foods, using lots and lots of squatty potties and generally being stretched beyond their limits?
On the other hand, many have dreams of traveling the world, experiencing cultures, loving and being loved by 31 other people, playing with orphans around the world, and seeing the good work that churches and missionaries and NGOs are doing across the continents of this earth.
—> It is an AWAKENING!
Now I know that my old life, my pre-Race life, was more like the dream. It was lovely and nice and full of happy things and comforts and, honestly, naive ignorance. It was the typical American life, which millions around the world do, indeed, dream of.
But my soul, my heart, my spirit have BEEN AWAKENED!
It is a joke on my team that we are the sleeptalking team, because Krystle and I are both known culprits. But now I say: no more sleeptalking, Katie! I am AWAKE and FULLY ALIVE!
Psalm 17:15
“And I-in righteousness I will see your face;
when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness.”
Ephesians 5:13-17
“But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said:
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”
